Kisêdjê

The Kĩsêdjê, called Suyá for many years, are the only group in the Upper Xingu belonging to the Jê language family. There are more than 400 individuals living today in four villages in the southwestern section of the Xingu Indigenous Park. Their ancestral territory, however, was by the Aronos River, in the Tapajós basin. After the split between the Suyá and the Tapayun, they arrived in the region of Upper Xingu between 1850 and 1860. Once there, they assimilated several cultural manifestations of other peoples. The self-denomination Kisêdjê means “people of large circular villages”. According to their narratives, Kĩsêdjê society took form through the appropriation of specific elements of animals and enemy Indians. Thus, fire (and cooking) was obtained through the jaguar; corn (and planting) came from the mouse; and the naming system (basic to social identity and all ceremonies) came from an enemy people who lived underground.

Music is very important to the Kĩsêdjê. In their cosmological universe, Kĩsêdjê sing because through song they can restore or create order in their world. It is a society where everyone “makes music” —in this society, making music also means dancing, political activity, and communicating something about oneself. It is what weaves the relationship between the individual and the collective.

Their craft production includes buriti fiber hammocks, pottery, rattles, wooden stools, and buriti or inajá mats plaited with cotton.

The stools are made by the men with mulberry, styrax or protium wood. The same designs as those used to paint the body are applied to the stools with dark, charcoal based paint. They are used by everyone in the village, though a woman may not sit on her husband’s stool, and similarly children are not allowed to sit on their father’s.